The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-02-17
Taxation and Prosperity.

Taxation and Prosperity.
The revenue of the government |
amounts to about one million dollars |
day, This sum ia taken form the peo-
pie by taxation. 1t requires the equiv
alent of the labor of one million per
sons at one dollar day to earn it. 1t
all comes out of the annual earnings
of those engaged in productive labor,
and is mostly obtained by taxes levied
ON what the people consume. These
are all plain propositions.
Anyone can see, with a moments
thought. that the money to pay taxes
is earned by productive labor. If it
should cease for a single year all over
the country the government revenue
would be at an end. Its source would
be dry. There would be nothing to
make it out of.
AS already stated, a total annual rev.
snue of 1867 900, 600 requires the equiv
alent of the labor of one million per-
sons at one dollar day for seven days
in the week, to earn money enough to
pay it. Labor does not create the
money to pay the taxes but the pro-
ducts of labor are turned into money
to pay them and it comes from no
other source. The national exchequer
is not filled by magic, or by taxation
that ia even directly beneficial to labor
but by hard days work and millions
of them.
1t is not a matter of conjecture. but
an obvious fact. that upon productive
Iobor the burdens of government fall
with unerring certainty. Those who
produ &c things to be turned into mon,
ey, or who sell their labor, pay the
revenue. Money is obtained in II"
other way. The government is sus.
tanned by those engaged in gainful
occupation.
II people would look at the matter
just AS it is, and not permit theiT
minds to be logged by sophistical pre-
teuses, or think that the national
treasury is annually replenished by
some sort of tariff necromancy. they
would realize how exhaustingly the
present rate of taxation draws on the
current earnings of labor, and would
be forcibly impressed with the necess
ity of reducing its burdens. For, be
You'd question, extravagant govern
ments impoverish the people, and
prosperity cannot co-exist with heavy
taxation.
Protective taxation is of all kind.
the most burdensome Taxes are paiG
to benefit private and corporate inter
ests rs well as support the government
Genuine reform and substantial relief
therefore. lie in reducing tariff taxa
tion first of all. And the first thinf
to be done is for the people to deter
mine that there shall be reform, anC
then elect men to Congress and tC
State legislatures who will carry ou
their determination.
| So long as we go on in the reckles!
ways of the past twenty years il
raising and spending money. an in
crease of popular discomfort. of labo
troubles, of pauperism and crime, il
inevitable. Present conditions are tn,
effect of pre-existent cause. Nothing
comes by chance. Protection has no
brought the promised prosperity. Nine
to ten years of the past thirteen hav,
been years of depressed business ant
discOntented labor. And nothing il
more certain, judging from past ex
perience, than that with a continn
ance of heavy taxation and tariff ham
pered trade, the same results will fol
low, with even greater severity, from
decade to decade. We have, under
the tariff. built up an artificial indus
trial system which topples over wheI
adversely comes and brings widespread
disaster three fourths of the time.
Industry needs less governmental
oppression and greater freedom
| Strangling commerce, by tariff enact
ments, to benefit manufacturers, is like
stopping the natural dow of blood In
the human body with q ligature
Commerce, exchange, is the life blood
of industry, the guarantee of employ
ment and wages for labor, and check
ing 1t by tariff taxation, or other arti.
ficial means, is in the end stagnation
and death.
The idea that taxation and prosper.
ity are synonyms is strange econom-
ical superstition. Coming in the guise
of "protection"-a wolf in sheep's
clothing-it has deceived even the
alart. Really it is nothing but the
avarice of the few, disguised by plaus
ible pretenses, taking from the many
a share of the fruits of their toil.-[E
w. Barber, of Jackson, Mich. in Jan
uary Million.